Trump’s State of the Union: A celebration of exaggerated ‘successes’ and denial of the opposite

Share this:

President Donald Trump delivering his second State of the Union address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday night.

President Trump’s State of the Union brag fest was an insult to your intelligence and mine. It was also a sign of bad character.

That’s not a fact. That’s my opinion. I can tell the difference. But it often seems that the current leaseholder on the Oval Office cannot.

It’s obvious by now to readers of this space that I don’t have a high opinion of Donald Trump. But I’ll offer my take and below I’ll quote from the instant post-speech analysis on television of at least one thought leader who liked the speech much better. And here is a transcript of the speech.

My take: The president is roughly incapable of acknowledging anything that is getting worse under his tenure, and certainly incapable of taking any responsibility for it. Last night was a celebration of his exaggerated “successes” and a denial of the opposite. Bad character, IMHO.

Trump expressed the overall view that everything in America is better than it has ever been and that this is largely the result of his leadership. The economy is generally healthy, and he believes he deserves, and openly asserts, that this is almost entirely the result his leadership.

In fact, Trump inherited a growing economy and a rising stock market from his predecessor, Barack Obama. (Obama inherited an economic disaster from his predecessor, George W. Bush, and it turned around under Obama.) But Trump trashes Obama and takes credit for the growth that was already under way when he took over. I find that ridiculous. And a sign of bad character. Feel free to disagree.

Early in the speech, Trump did say, to Democrats: “I stand here ready to work with you.” Maybe that was his gesture of open-mindedness. But he also said: “The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican agenda or Democrat agenda. It is the agenda of the American people.”

Surprise: He made a pitch for a southern border wall. It had nothing new in it. He just got humiliated in the shutdown because of his insistence on it, which turned out not to be real insistent. He tried again last night. He talked about another “tremendous onslaught” of dangerous Latino gang members headed this way. He said we could call it a “barrier” if we didn’t like the word “wall,” as if he believes the terminology is the key to buying down the opposition.

Actually, the speech was almost entirely and specifically the wish list of Trump and what we usually call his base, spiced with a lot of false braggadocio. I suspect he knows that, but maybe not. I don’t claim to understand how he thinks or what portion of what he says he actually believes.

The shout-outs to invited guests, who had either committed acts of personal heroism or lived through great misfortunes, were excellent.

Trump seems to think (or acts as though he thinks) he has already made America great again but needs to build a wall and do a couple of other things to make it even greater. I give him one hand clapping for avoiding any unctuous false humility about his greatness.

I used the term “brag fest” at the top, which was my overwhelming impression while watching and listening. Toward the end, as I tried to imagine what I would write about it, I jotted down: “A stunning tour de force of self-aggrandizement, self-congratulation, and self-love.”

I tuned to Fox right after the speech. Sean Hannity said the speech reviewed “a list of successes over a two-year period under his leadership that was unprecedented. …”

CNN had a slightly more balanced panel (at least there were two Republicans on it). Former Sen. Rick Santorum praised Trump’s speech, but Van Jones called it “a psychotically incoherent speech, put together with cookies and dog poop.”

My last thought: Trump’s Republican Party took a shellacking in November, which cost his party control of the House and many governorships. They managed to make a small gain in the U.S. Senate, but Democrats actually won most of the Senate races that were on the ballot. (That’s because Democrats had more seats up.)

A Washington Post midterm election summary said: “Rational observers declared the results to be an unmitigated disaster for the White House and Trumpism in general. The president’s party was routed in safe political havens around the country as the GOP lost the congressional midterm popular vote by the largest margin in the United States’ 240-year history.”

This was his first big national address since then. Did Trump take any responsibility last night (or ever) for the shellacking, which could easily be viewed as a referendum on his first years in office or on his ideas for our nation? No.

Bad character? Lack of contact with the realities? Lack of understanding? Signs of his secret genius? You tell me.

Share this:

Get MinnPost in your email inbox:

Related Tags:

About the author:

Veteran journalist Eric Black writes Eric Black Ink for MinnPost. His latest award is from the Society of Professional Journalists, which in May 2017 announced he'd won the national Sigma Delta Chi Award for online column writing.

Comments (54)

I’m wondering how many people actually watched? I didn’t, why would I? Another “unique” feature of the Trump Presidency is the increasing magnitude of his irrelevancy. Back in December the Washington Post conducted a first of it’s kind survey asking if and now many American’s actually believe stuff Trump says. It found that 70% don’t believe much of anything he says and only 16% believe everything he says. And this was before he shutdown, and before people really started doing their taxes and finding out they got screwed. Since people tend to ignore those whom they don’t believe, how much attention beyond his “base” does he really command? Frankly, if I ran one of the major networks, I’d pass and sticki with the normal broadcast schedule.

His performance was predictable and as usual deplorable, the ridiculous media “predictions” that he was going to call for bipartisan cooperation and “unity” were of course… mistaken. Whatever.

I didn’t watch either. I didn’t feel I could stomach listening to P.O.T.U.S. that long as I too suffer from high blood pressure. Love the new nickname, btw, “Cadet Bone Spurs”! May I borrow it some time?

Misty Martin: I can’t claim ownership of the Cadet Bone Spurs nickname.
I hope it is in the general domain, since I got it from the internet almost two years ago. I would provide attribution if I could, but I honestly don’t remember. I’m glad you agree with me that it`is a great name for Donald “Dumpster Fire” Trump. (I stole that one, too from some long-forgotten source).

What does it say about our present situation that derogatory nicknames for or President come so easily to mind?

I watched it, Paul Udstrand – 80 minutes or so of gritted teeth at my end, though I did manage to avoid saying anything to the inanimate television screen. I pretty much take Trump’s amoral, grade-school character and greed for granted, so on that score, the SOTU address provided no surprises. Nor was I surprised that Trump did his best to take credit for anything Obama did that’s seen as generally positive.

To be fair, I didn’t expect Trump to take any responsibility for the Republican disaster in the midterm election – as far as I can tell, after two years in office, he generally fails to take responsibility for anything that might be construed as negative. I don’t remember the speech, but my guess is that Obama didn’t take personal responsibility in his SOTU speech after Republicans took control of the House back in… um… 2010? Avoiding blame is a time-honored tradition not limited to particular individuals or political groups, or even politics, though some individuals and groups spend more time and effort on denial than others.

Without reading the accompanying article, I came across an L.A. Times headline this morning that does a fair job of summing up my reaction: Trump’s speech might as well have been a campaign rally. Virtually no substance, but lots of cheerleading, to which equally mindless Republicans responded enthusiastically. I should add that there was lots of physical posturing, as well. Mr. Trump has come close to mastering the Mussolini swagger after delivering an applause line, something that fits his authoritarian personality much better than I find comfortable.

There is nothing typical about Trump. His relatives remember him being a major bully by age 5. His parents shipped him off to military school at age 8. And it’s been downhill since then.

Today at age 72 he demonstrates limited thinking and vision, with poor language usage and social skills. Instead he is constantly on the attack, excoriating and denigrating others constantly. He lives to destroy, destroy, destroy! This is deeply flawed and damaged individual who lives in a world of abundant delusion:( He is shockingly unfit for office. So the only question any of should be asking now is: why is he still in office?! Because there is nothing admirable or honorable about Donald J Trump.

~

And for those who love to label and box others, please take the time to understand the various labels before tossing them out indiscriminately:

NOUN
a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
synonyms:
leftism · Fabianism · syndicalism · consumer socialism · utopian socialism · welfarism · communism · Bolshevism · radicalism · militancy · progressivism · [more]

~

Democratic socialism is a political philosophy that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management of economic institutions within a market or some form of decentralized planned socialist economy.

‘Recited’ is the operative term.
No President writes his own speeches, although Clinton and Obama were actively involved.
But all you’ve got to do is compare the transcript with his collects twits and you know that he had little to do with the SOTU content.

Do a little research and you will see that Clinton and Obama specifically took responsibility for losses in the first election after their own election. This would be known as living in a rational world where truth is acknowledged and confronted. Something Trump has never done in his adult life.

It was a political speech like all other State of the Union addresses. As with all political speeches – they equally have their share of “exaggerations.” (you can keep you DR., “….big government is over” etc.)

It was not only exaggerations of Trump which stood out – but the far-lefts takeover of the Democratic party that stood out. From socialism – late term abortions – out of touch immigration policies – the smirking democratic left was humorous to watch. Nancy was a hoot! Did she know where she was? Was she sucking on “smirk-savers?”

Just a few years ago the left would have decried socialism – declared that Roe V. Wade does not allow for late term abortions – and actually voted to build border walls.

Now they simply sit and smirk. Were they lying a few years ago or has their party been ripped away from them and thinking dems have no backbone to stand up to the Mob.

Wow! And where is the party of family values, watchdog of the national debt, protector of democracy, pro free-trade, etc. if you want to actually examine what has happened to the two parties. Political parties are always evolving, but I think you could make a pretty argument the Republicans are the ones who have sold more of their souls. Smirking is probably the best response to Trump’s phony appeal for unity followed by a threat not to investigate me.

Notably missing in Trump’s speech was any mention of the 800,000 Americans who worked without pay for 35 days during the shutdown. That would have required empathy and the ability to drop his own ego down a notch or two for a brief moment…something he seems incapable of doing. That is not leadership, Ron. That is pathetic.

An argument could also be made that the GOP has been hijacked by the far right and Trump loyalists. Anyone with a different view is dismissed as a RINO.

There was a time when responsible Republicans would insist on details about Trump’s frequent claims that Mexico will pay for the wall. That they would have criticized Trump for applauding a violent crime (an assault by a Montana Congressman on a reporter) at a rally.

First off, all of those 800,000 got paid and knew they would. Congress has always given back pay to anyone furloughed by a partial shutdown. Secondly, many of those 800,000 weren’t working, they were furloughed.

Also, Trump isn’t far right, he was a Democrat for much of his life and still is on a number of issues. He’s more of a centrist even than Bush43. Name one place Trump has cut spending. He hasn’t. He hasn’t vetoed any spending bills either. I assume by far right you mean Conservative. And that certainly doesn’t describe Donald Trump.

Notably missing in Trump’s speech was any mention of the 800,000 Americans who worked without pay for 35 days during the shutdown. That would have required empathy and the ability to drop his ego down a notch or two briefly…something he is incapable of doing.

Reality check for Trump supporters (which no doubt some will regard as TDS):

Trump appropriately complimented some military heroes in attendance during his SOTU speech. Thankfully, “bone spurs” did not prevent them from serving.

Mexico is not paying for the wall.

You are supporting a President that wrongly blamed both sides after the white supremacist march in Charlottesville.

You are supporting a President that enthusiastically applauded a violent, criminal assault at a rally in Montana (Congressman Gianforte’s assault on a reporter).

You are supporting a President that had applauded sexual assault on an open mic (“I can grab them by the p….”). I’ll bet when he looked out at all the new Democratic women in Congress during his speech, that he felt like he got kicked in the crotch. Lol…karma.

You are supporting a President that continued to insist the firmer President Barack Obama was born in Kenya long after it had been proven otherwise.

In short, you are basically supporting a thug with no respect for our free press as mentioned in the Furst Amendment and almost zero impulse control (evidence the Twitter rants, etc) rather than a truly responsible leader.

If a Democrat had done any of the above (incomplete list, btw) Trump supporters and the GOP would be attacking them relentlessly. However, because it’s Trump, so many of them look the other way.

The growing tally of lies by Trump has set a record.

Fwiw, many Democrats have had the ability to put country before party at crucial times (not at all times, but certainly more than the GOP). For example, many have called for Virginia governor Northam, a Democrat, to step down after his black face scandal.

It will be interesting to find out the results of the Mueller investigation. I’m certain Mueller will be the target of smears and lies by the Trump loyalists when that happens.

Stacey Abrams response, Steven Colbert’s live (Youtube’d) with Spike Lee and guests, and the powerful display of women in white- the guests fired after 12 years working at a golf course, the picture of a child who died in US custody pinned on AOC-

All of those summarize: the resistance is coming into full swing.

Those were the memorable and hopeful signs (to me) that more people are beginning to see a way forward on the most difficult issues facing our nation (and our planet for that matter).

We may have to make it to the next election with incremental gains or simply stopping as much of the bad policy measures coming from the right wing nationalists and the oligarchs, but the show of strength and unity of the conscious resistance gives us hope.

The state of the nation? Hope is rising. Fewer Americans will give up on our politics. More have joined the fight.

Thank you for your reaction. So many of us are filled with disgust and frustration by what has happened in the take over of our nation and it is refreshing to read your response. I also think it would be good to have a reaction to the two responses to the speech – Bernie Sanders was excellent and has been ignored. The democratic response was also outstanding.

You’re cherry picking as usual.
If you read the whole article, you see that the viewers were disproportionately Republicans, so of course they approved.
The broader takeaway:
Most Americans are Democrats; most Democrats disapproved.

Trump, a boy child, who never intended to be president. All he wanted was to stir the political pot and garner all the attention he could to feed his acute narcissism. Because of his miscalculation he is president, in the loosest sense of the word, and has now cornered himself, some family members, and others in his orbit as well. That is why, all of a sudden, he is asking for unity, a man who only knows how to divide. His definition of unity appears to be fall in behind me and follow. I suspect anything that sounded possible in his speech will likely be undone with a tweet in the next 24 hours. Trump calling the seventeen investigations, going on about him, ridiculous. I would say it is about time. As the bits and pieces of Trump’s life leak out it makes him, and those around him, look like they have led lives of crime. It must have been a bit intimidating for Trump to look out on the women wearing white. He knows, or should know, he hasn’t figured out how to deal with women, which he proved during a 35 day shutdown where he got absolutely nothing from just a single woman, Speaker Pelosi. A nice show of “Unity” by the women in white. It isn’t the unity Trump was speaking of however. He did get the adulation he needs from half of the room’s faux applause and chants. The SOTU should be abolished as it is not a good example of democracy to broadcast around the world. Trump continues to make us the laughingstock of the world.

A trillion dollars of stock buy-backs and stock prices are sputtering.

40% of Americans don’t have a spare $400 for an emergency.

And the new priority of a missile defense system (hundreds of billions or even a trillion dollars) is on top of increased defense budget ( even with the military relieved of duty in Europe and the Middle East).

I did watch the whole typical Trump production. His speech writers kept his sentences short so that he wouldn’t go off on tangents. Trump had WWII Heroes and Jewish Holocaust Survivors there as well as others as his guests which was a nice touch to recognize them. Otherwise the production was directed to his base as well as the Republican side of the isle which he faced at least 75% of the time. Did he realize that the ladies in the white dresses replaced many of the Republicans?

It’s great humor that this buffoon actually believes that by spending most of his day’s and nights eating junk food and watching Fox news that he is qualified to take credit for “creating” x number of jobs.

Does chomping on burgers and sending out nasty tweets between TV shows create jobs?

No.

He inherited a strong economy, low unemployment, and a bullish stock market from the Obama years, just as the US was the number one oil and gas producer 5 years before he took office.

But he touts both as if the economy, and stock market was in a shambles when he took over, and becoming number 1 in oil and gas production took place under his watch – none of which is true.

He accuses others of ‘fake news’, but he is the main generator of that, much of it involving inaccurately taking credit for the achievements of others.

We kind of have a cross posting situation going on here, but here’s a quick run of Trump’s SOTU numbers:

47 million American’s watched Trump’s year-2 SOTU. That’s the lowest number in at least 26 years. That works out to be around 14% of the population. Of those 33 million “approved”, which works out to be around 10% of the American people. That means 90% of American’s either didn’t watch, or didn’t approve of Trump’s SOTU.

By the way, Trump didn’t break any record in 2017. Trump is an historically unpopular and increasingly irrelevant President. The best way to describe his SOTU is simply: “irrelevant”. He sets no agendas, he offers nothing but misinformation and false claims. He’s just a braggart-n-chief. The longer this guy stays in office, for better or worse the POTUS becomes less and less relevant both here and around the world.

What’s really kind of funny or maybe just ironic about all of this is that Trump’s supporters have assumed that they’ve been elevated into some kind of privilege and power, but in fact they will only end up sharing Trump’s increasing irrelevancy. If you think they’re throwing temper tantrums now… wait till “socialism” really get under way! You can manufacture you own reality, and Republicans have managed to do it for a surprisingly long period of time… but REAL reality has a way of eventually catching up.

My biggest award of the evening goes to Pelosi who somehow presumably with application of some super powers- sat behind Trump through his entire “speech” without breaking out into laughter. I would have been rolling out of my chair every 20 seconds, specially when he claims we would be at war with N. Korea if it weren’t for HIM. As far as I can tell she didn’t even roll her eyes when he warned about the rise of “socialism”. THAT was impressive.

Mr. Black’s summation of Trump’s SOTU speech “A stunning tour de force of self-aggrandizement, self-congratulation, and self-love.” perfectly summarizes exactly why we are victims of daily “Presidential Harassment”. Mr. Black’s summation is the definition of Narcissism and with regard to Trump, Acute Narcissism. Trump’s characterization of himself as a “Stable Genius” is full throated, grossly overstated, “Fake News”.

Same economy with exception of unnecessary trade wars hurting Americans, SAME trade agreements with minor changes, SAME border, ISIS destroyed by the time he got into office, and oil and gas changes tied up in the courts.

The reason Trump’s scraping the bottom of popularity is American’s have finally started paying attention and realized that the alternate reality Republicans live in doesn’t work for everyone.